SHAD ARE SPAWNING … THINGS ARE GETTING GOOD!! — 130 FISH

WHO I FISHED WITH: On Thursday morning, 14 March, I fished with a family of six from just west of Houston. At 7:40 AM, I welcomed aboard James, Heather, Harrison, Cannon, Millie, and Shepherd Steen.

This was a bit of a spring break trip, mixed with a visit to the Baylor college campus for Millie, who may join her two older brothers there next year.

Here’s how the fishing went…

Next available dates are 28 Mar., 2 & 4 Apr. (AMs)






PHOTO CAPTION: The Steen family. From left: Shepherd, Millie, Cannon, Heather, James, and Harrison. The Steens caught a majority of their fish on MAL Originals (white tails and chartreuse tails) in the first 2.5 hours of light, then relied on white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slabs as the fish moved deeper and settled down in the final 1.5 hours of the trip. They landed 130 fish.






PHOTO CAPTION: It was only appropriate that Heather, who researched, planned and coordinated the trip, caught the biggest fish of the morning. This 19″ hybrid striper weighed 3.50 pounds. It fell for her white, 5/8 oz. Bladed Hazy Eye Slab.



Find the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab here: https://whitebasstools.com/

WHERE WE FISHED: Lake Belton

WHEN WE FISHED: Thursday, 14 Mar. 2024 (AM)

HOW WE FISHED:

This morning was as close to a cookie cutter version of yesterday‘s excellent conditions and results as you could get.



Perhaps the biggest positive feature was air temperature that exceeded the water temperature during the overnight hours.



Additionally, the skies were completely greyed over with a muggy feel to the air and a stiff southerly breeze at 12 to 14 mph.



As I suspected such conditions might, this weather prompted the first shad spawning activity I have seen thus far this year.



Only the three brothers were adept at casting with spinning gear, so, there was a bit of a learning curve to get through and in pretty tight quarters, trying to get six people to cast consistently and safely aboard a 22-foot boat. Aside from that, all six needed some instruction on how to work the MAL Original Lures they’d be using.



Once we got all those kinks worked out, we enjoyed two and a half solid hours of catching using the sawtooth method before the shallow water bite began to slack off. During these two hours we fished three locations. At each, we stayed hovering in about 14 to 16 feet of water, casting shallower as a default, or sight-casting to white bass hitting shad on the surface as opportunity knocked.



Here is a tutorial video on executing the sawtooth method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3FMEQHOMQ



After about 2.5 hours had passed, the Steens had landed 102 fish, the bird action was waning, the bite was softening, and there was not much to see up shallow any longer as seen on sonar, so, we “re-tooled”, by putting away the MAL Lure rods, and breaking out the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab rods.



I gave an overview on how to work the slabs, emphasizing the importance of reeling smoothly and at the right speed. I incorporated a metronome to help everyone “keep the beat” when it came to reeling at the correct speed.



At the first location we hit, I left the LiveScopes turned off so everyone could just focus on the reeling. Once everyone was doing well and everyone had caught a few fish, only then did I layer in the LiveScopes. This allowed everyone to continue reeling if they were getting chased during the standard 4-5 cranks they were taking previously. It also allowed each person the chance to retrieve their bait by suspended fish.



The fishing slowly tapered off through 11:45 when James decided the eating meat all Miller’s Smokehouse in Belton sounded more appealing than working for just one more white bass.



We called it a good day with exactly 130 fish landed, including 1 legal hybrid striped bass, 1 freshwater drum, and 128 white bass.



TALLY: 130 fish caught and released



OBSERVATIONS: I witnessed the first spawning shad activity of the year this morning. It was steady from 7:10 to 7:50, then more sporadic through 9:30A.

WEATHER DATA:

Start Time: 7:45A

End Time: 11:45A

Air Temp. @ Trip’s Start: 72F

Elevation: 12.08 feet low, 33 CFS flow

Water Surface Temp: 63.4F on the surface.

Wind Speed & Direction: SSE 10-14mph

Sky Condition: 100% grey cloud cover all morning

Moon Phase: Waxing crescent moon at 23% illumination.

GT = 0

Wx SNAPSHOT:






AREAS FISHED WITH SUCCESS:

B0066C (50 fish), B0074C (10 fish), B0066C second stop (42 fish), 681/B0126C (16 fish), B0269G (12 fish)


Bob Maindelle

Full-time, Professional Fishing Guide and Owner of Holding the Line Guide Service

Belton Lake Fishing Guide, Stillhouse Hollow Fishing Guide

254.368.7411 (call or text)

Website: www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

E-mail: Bob@HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bobmaindelle

Twitter: www.twitter.com/bobmaindelle

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Smiles say it all. Awesome post.